(Newswire.net — March 12, 2019) — While travelling from Nairobi to Kenya on a scheduled flight a plane has crashed while travelling this route. After setting off from Bole International Airport at 8:38 am, reports say that the plane ‘lost contact’ with the airport only six minutes later. At the time, the plane would have been near the town of Bishoftu.
The plane is believed to have been carrying at least 149 passengers and 8 crew members, with deaths being reported.
The first news of this crash came from the twitter feed of Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, who wrote ‘The office of the PM, on behalf of the government and people of Ethiopia, would like to express it’s deepest condolences to the families of those that have lost their loved ones on Eithiopian Airlines Boeing 737…’
The airline has since stated that there is a search and rescue operation in progress. They also further stated that they currently have no information about any survivors or possible casualties.
Boeing, the company that made the plane that has crashed, have stated that they will be closely monitoring the situation.
This is not the first time a Boeing 737 has crashed. This airplane is the same type of airplane as the Lion Air Jet, an Indonesian plane that crashed in October last year, only 13 minutes after taking off from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board.
One reason why these crashes may have happened is due to the relative newness of the Boeing 737 8-Max. It is new to the skies, having only been launched in 2016, and being added to the Ethiopian fleet late last year.
Has Ethiopian Airlines got a good safety record?
Ethiopian Airlines is genuinely considered to be a safe and popular airline, as it flies to many destinations all over Africa.
The last time Ethiopian Airlines experienced a crash was during 2010, where one of their planes crashed while travelling over the Mediterranean Sea, killing 90 people
There is still no information regarding the cause of the airline crash, and there has currently been no further information regarding any deaths and casualties.